CIA Agent Seeks to Subpoena Gonzales, Tenet
via t r u t h o u t:
A former CIA contractor accused of beating an Afghan prisoner plans to call former agency Director George Tenet and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as witnesses to aid his defense that he was acting under government authority.
David Passaro's witness list was made public for the first time Tuesday along with a score of other documents after The News & Observer, The Associated Press and The Washington Post asked a court to release them. The news organizations had complained that the federal government's prosecution of Passaro, the first U.S. civilian charged under the Patriot Act, was secret because so many documents were under seal.
...
Passaro is scheduled to be tried July 11 on the assault charges. Because Passaro was working as a CIA operative, much of the evidence against him is classified, which has caused court filings that would typically be public to be filed under seal. Federal authorities even had to build a special secure room at the federal courthouse in Raleigh to house all the classified information.
The bulk of the court records released Tuesday involve Passaro's efforts to see evidence against him. Some documents were redacted, or crossed out, to keep classified information from being made public.
In one defense motion, an entire page was redacted. In another, the defense asks for access to evidence that might prove his innocence. What that evidence might be remains unknown -- the list that followed was redacted.
The documents give a fuller look at the main contention of Passaro's defense: that he was only doing his job.
"Mr. Passaro asserts that he acted under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and President George Bush, acting in his capacity as commander-in-chief," federal public defender Thomas P. McNamara wrote in one filing. Passaro makes a similar argument in a pending motion to have his assault charges dismissed, arguing that the interrogation was needed to protect U.S. troops from rocket attacks.
Beyond Tenet and Gonzales, who used to serve as Bush's legal counsel, Passaro also wants to call as witnesses:
David S. Addington, counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney.
U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jay S. Bybee in Las Vegas.
Law professor John C. Yoo of the University of California at Berkeley.
Bybee and Yoo are former Justice Department officials who drafted legal policy advocating aggressive interrogation techniques with detainees.
I abhor the "good German" defense -- as a defense. As an antidote to the de facto immunity the real war criminals have achieved, I applaud it. If we do not have the will to prosecute up the chain, then the best we can do is hope the patsies do the dirty work for us by pulling their so-called superiors down with them.
A friend from high school went to West Point in the late 1970's, when Viet Nam was still a vivid memory. He told me about how the admonishment that a soldier should not obey an illegal order was a big part of his training. I wonder if that still holds true today.
A former CIA contractor accused of beating an Afghan prisoner plans to call former agency Director George Tenet and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as witnesses to aid his defense that he was acting under government authority.
David Passaro's witness list was made public for the first time Tuesday along with a score of other documents after The News & Observer, The Associated Press and The Washington Post asked a court to release them. The news organizations had complained that the federal government's prosecution of Passaro, the first U.S. civilian charged under the Patriot Act, was secret because so many documents were under seal.
...
Passaro is scheduled to be tried July 11 on the assault charges. Because Passaro was working as a CIA operative, much of the evidence against him is classified, which has caused court filings that would typically be public to be filed under seal. Federal authorities even had to build a special secure room at the federal courthouse in Raleigh to house all the classified information.
The bulk of the court records released Tuesday involve Passaro's efforts to see evidence against him. Some documents were redacted, or crossed out, to keep classified information from being made public.
In one defense motion, an entire page was redacted. In another, the defense asks for access to evidence that might prove his innocence. What that evidence might be remains unknown -- the list that followed was redacted.
The documents give a fuller look at the main contention of Passaro's defense: that he was only doing his job.
"Mr. Passaro asserts that he acted under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and President George Bush, acting in his capacity as commander-in-chief," federal public defender Thomas P. McNamara wrote in one filing. Passaro makes a similar argument in a pending motion to have his assault charges dismissed, arguing that the interrogation was needed to protect U.S. troops from rocket attacks.
Beyond Tenet and Gonzales, who used to serve as Bush's legal counsel, Passaro also wants to call as witnesses:
David S. Addington, counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney.
U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jay S. Bybee in Las Vegas.
Law professor John C. Yoo of the University of California at Berkeley.
Bybee and Yoo are former Justice Department officials who drafted legal policy advocating aggressive interrogation techniques with detainees.
I abhor the "good German" defense -- as a defense. As an antidote to the de facto immunity the real war criminals have achieved, I applaud it. If we do not have the will to prosecute up the chain, then the best we can do is hope the patsies do the dirty work for us by pulling their so-called superiors down with them.
A friend from high school went to West Point in the late 1970's, when Viet Nam was still a vivid memory. He told me about how the admonishment that a soldier should not obey an illegal order was a big part of his training. I wonder if that still holds true today.
posted by bluememe at 4/13/2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home